Ballet West’s tie to Taylor Swift soon to be back on the stage
Jan 3, 2024, 8:57 AM | Updated: 9:38 am
Ballet West costumes that were used in A Taylor Swift video will be back on the stage next month in the production of “Swan Lake” held up here by Cindy Farrimond and Jason Hadley. (Mike Anderson, KSL-TV)
(Mike Anderson, KSL-TV)
SALT LAKE CITY — Taylor Swift is bigger than ever.
And right now in Utah, a local claim to that fame is being pulled out of the closet and will soon hit the stage again.
In the basement of Capitol Theatre, Cindy Farrimond, costume shop manager for Ballet West, and Jason Hadley, director of costumes for Ballet West, are busy these days making practice tutus. However, the two will soon be refurbishing the actual stage costumes for their next production.
“It just needs to be washed up and fit and altered for the new dancers that are going to be wearing them,” Farrimond said.
Tutus in the Taylor Swift video
These are tutus that fans of Swift may know all too well.
“But these are the tutus that were in the video of ‘Shake it Off’,” Farrimond said.
But when this video came out, you may call it “The Best Day” because, as Farrimond remembers, it started out pretty simple.
“They got a phone call saying that a production company wanted to rent them,” Farrimond said.
And the long story short when the video dropped, it was like an epiphany.
“Yeah, you can’t miss them,” Farrimond said.
Hadley said he had a friend in the video with Swift.
“Ironically, I had a friend that’s in the music video dancing right next to Taylor Swift,” Hadley said. “And so she posted the video and and I was like ‘those costumes look familiar.'”
Not every ballet company has such timeless and rentable costumes.
“We’re really lucky here at Ballet West that we have big productions that are beautiful,” Hadley said. “And they’re really well taken care of.”
Not sure which one Swift wore
“Yeah, she definitely wore one of them,” Farrimond said.
Since 15 of the costumes were rented, they can’t be sure which one Swift wore. But coming out of 2023, the year of Swift, it’s only fitting that these costumes get dusted off and cleaned again. Ballet West is scheduled to put on “Swan Lake,” starting next month.
“It was kind of cool knowing I had built something that was on a music video,” Farrimond said.
In all, there are 24 tutus, but only 16 will be on stage at a time. “Swan Lake” will run from Feb. 9-17. Tickets are on sale now and can be purchased by clicking here.
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